Digex Inc. took a bigger step into the world of Internet-based commerce yesterday by agreeing to acquire a Boston company that makes software to connect Web sites with large corporate databases.

The deal to buy Electronic Press Services will let Digex, a Beltsville Internet service provider, offer corporate customers both the rich graphics of a Web site and the ability to connect the site to computers that hold information about things such as flight schedules or inventories of goods, or that can process payments.

In most cases, customers now have to make separate deals to get the Web site from one company and the tools to connect the Web site to corporate databases from another firm, Digex said.

"At the very high end of the [corporate Web site] market, companies want to do a lot of database management," said Earl Galleher, vice president and general manager of Digex's Web site management division. "The people who create Web sites don't have the technical capability" to marry database management to basic Web design.

Digex's business includes providing telecommunications services to companies using the Internet, and specialized services to create and maintain corporate Web sites. Many companies outsource the job of running Web sites in order to cut costs.

Terms were not disclosed. The deal will close early next year, and EPS' 40 employees are expected to stay in Boston, Galleher said.

He said bringing Web site design and database management into a single company will help the sites work more efficiently.